Rules of Offensive Influence
| Author | Jennifer Counter |
|---|---|
| Published | April 8, 2021 |
| Format | Article |
| Original | Read the original |
TL;DR — Sixteen rules for running influence campaigns against an adversary, written by a strategic-communications practitioner and republished by Columbia SPS.
A short article by Jennifer Counter, a Columbia School of Professional Studies alumna and vice president at Orbis Operations, posted on the school’s site in April 2021 and first published in the national-security outlet Strike Source. A browser print of that page.
She argues that persuading groups is an old practice made faster by modern communications, and that posting on social media is not the same as running an influence operation. The sixteen points include respecting your adversary, treating the fight as political and therefore emotional, identifying the audience, picking three to five wedge concepts and rotating them, welcoming defectors, filling power vacuums, and evaluating results without emotion.
What it is: a practitioner’s opinion piece on strategic communication, publicly posted by a university; a list of principles, not research.
Where this came from
- A copy saved in October 2026.
- Original on the Columbia School of Professional Studies site.
9 pages. A copy is archived locally against link rot; the header links the original source.